


Don't Count Us Out Just Yet

by anxiousbutcaffeinated



Series: The New Team on the Block [8]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Badass Women, College, Exy (All For The Game), Female Exy Team, Future Captain Zakiya Naaji, Gen, but like its okay, dont you look at my babies, theyre fighters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiousbutcaffeinated/pseuds/anxiousbutcaffeinated
Summary: With a player injured the Gators are shaken, but if you think they're going to give up the fight you're dead wrong.or the Gators play the Ravens and its one hell of a match
Series: The New Team on the Block [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016551
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So... I finished this at 4:30 am, that will explain any grammar issues because editing is for people whose attention span is longer than mine. And yeah, I put on my sad girl hours playlist because I wanted to feel something and that feeling that came out was anger and hatred for the Ravens. A mood, I know. Please enjoy the results of my aggressive writing mood.
> 
> also an alternate title was "bitch you thought?" but like italicized, you know? I decided against it because it felt like a definite 4:30 am decision that wasn't right

The locker room was silent, only the sound of panting breaths filling the space. No one was looking at one another, each woman trying to gather their strength to keep pushing despite having nothing left to give. The game was already half finished and their hope was draining with every glance at the scoreboard. Coach Johnson wasn’t there, he had to follow the gurney out to the parking lot and see it off.

“Alright, that is fucking IT!” Zakiya launched herself off the bench, water bottle in hand crunching at the force her grip put on it. She whipped around to stare her teammates down, breath still uneven. “Isabel has given EVERYTHING for this goddamn team, she hasn’t had a single moment this year not spent doing everything she could to get us here.”

The team around her looked up, wide eyed at the outburst. “When we didn’t have jersey who stayed up all night baking stupid brownies and making signs so we could have a fucking bake sale to get matching shirts?”

Elliott’s lips flicked up for a moment, “She drew little exy sticks on the cupcakes with frosting.”

“Who yelled at reporters when they called us emotional, fragile, unprepared, or any other bullshit story they could come up with because they don’t think women can keep up with men?”

Max let out a dry laugh, barely there. “She called them on every single thing, refused to let anything slide on the principle of the thing. Fucking exhausting but she did us proud.”

“Who makes sure we bandage every wound and ice every bruise because she wants us to be alright and heal right?”

Tessa was looking at the ground, refusing to look up from where she clutched her helmet in her hands. “She keeps fucking checking the tape on my shoulder before we play, just to make sure I don’t mess it up any more. And keeps pulling out ice packs, like where does she get them from?”

Kaylee chuckled at that, “She has a cooler, makes Coach hide it in his duffle so you won’t see it and make her put it away. We all know how stubborn you are Wilson.”

Zakiya looked around the room, seeing a team of strong, powerful women sitting before her. They were wounded, aching from the loss of their leader, but they were not finished. “She’s going to get the best care she can, and if she was here she would be screaming her head off at all of us counting ourselves out. We have fought tooth and nail to get here, we have bled and cried and given  _ everything _ to get here. You think for one second she would want us to quit just because she got hurt?”

“She’s not just hurt, Zakiya,” Victoria glared up at her, channeling all the uncertainty filling the air into anger. “She didn’t wake up, she was out cold and wouldn’t wake up. Her helmet cracked, this isn’t just a bump on the head. Who knows what will happen, she may not Isabel if she does wake up.”

“When she wakes up, do you want to be the one to tell her we rolled over and gave up? You want to be the one to tell her that we threw away everything she did for us because we didn’t want to fight for it? This isn’t over, and have enough respect for our captain to keep pushing. You’re pissed, well so am I! But instead of being pissed at me why don’t you be pissed at them; I promised these stupid ass Raven’s can take your anger. Now, is everyone in? If not leave now because we have some work to do before we go out there again and win this hellscape of a game.” Nobody moved, all eyes on Zakiya. “Good.” She picked up Coach Johnson’s clipboard, seeing the plays he had lined up for their match. “What we’re doing isn’t working and we’re down a striker, so who’s ready to shake this shit up?”

There was a moment of silence, then Aisha spoke. “Kaylee and I can keep going, but we’re going to need at least one sub somewhere in there to be able to push as much as we’re going to.” And they were off, reorganizing their lineup and ready to fight until the end.

“We’re down four points, so Millie and Zakiya need to shut that shit down, but we can leave it all to them; defense needs to stop letting people by them.”

“We need to take them off guard, if we throw them off their rhythm we can get by.”

“Now is not the fucking time for a John Mulaney reference Alex!”

“Is he wrong Max?! John knows what the fuck is up!”

There was a knock on the door and a referee poked their head in the room. “Times up, you guys need to head back out. Where’s your coach?”

Zakiya stood, glaring him dead in the eyes. “We’re ready, he’ll be back in a minute. Ladies, let’s go.”

Zakiya stood by the court doors as they filed on, a place usually filled by Isabel. She knocked her stick against each of them, stopping Tessa to check the tape on her shoulder before shoving her ahead just like their captain would. Isabel might not be there, but she was never gone. Looking over her shoulder at the three girls on the bench, she walked towards the goal waiting for her.

Aisha took her normal position as a striker, but Victoria stepped up from defensive dealer to the striker by her side; she had free reign to channel her anger in a healthy and violent way while shoving backliners out of Aisha’s way. Alex was support as an offensive dealer, and Millie was standing in as backliner to give Elliott and Max a chance to catch their breath. Tessa was a wall in her position, no way in hell she was letting anyone by her. Zakiya watched all this from her spot in the goal, smirk making its way onto her face.

_ Get ready for hell, Ravens. _

* * *

If the first half of the game was a fight, this was war. The Raven’s refused to be taken down by another no name team from the middle of nowhere, but the Gators weren’t going to let them take it without a fight. Four minutes into the second half Aisha scored a goal but had the wind knocked out of her by a stick to the gut. The Raven was taken off the court but they didn’t have the numbers to sacrifice anyone to a fight.

So the Gators held their punches, bit their tongues, and held their ground.

A Raven striker shoved Millie to the ground and went to swing at the goal, but before Zakiya even raised her stick to deflect it Tessa was smacking his stick back with her own. The players stick clattered to the ground as Tessa stole the ball, serving it down the court to Alex. With a hand she pulled Millie to her feet without even looking, running back to her side of the court.

Eight minutes and twenty six seconds had another goal for the Gators, scored by Alex at the half court line. The crowd went wild, but the women of the University of Florida Gators were focused.

Fourteen minutes and fifteen seconds had Aisha scoring again, sliding on her knees to abound a tackle coming for her.

Subs were made at the fifteen minute mark. Aisha knocked her stick against Kaylee’s as they traded places. Alex stepped up to be their second striker, Victoria following Aisha to the bench. Elliott took over as dealer, Max joining Tessa as a backliner. Millie and Zakiya exchanged a look, a silent conversation decided Zakiya was staying right where she was. After Millie stepped off the court the doors locked, and the ball was back into play.

The Ravens were back at the goal again in no time, but Zakiya batted it away like she did all their others. They had stepped it up this half, but they were getting nowhere. If their defensive line didn’t take them out, Zakiya wasn’t giving them an inch.

It seemed like a stalemate for a few minutes, the ball being traded back and forth, being blocked and sent across the court over and over again. Then, at twenty six minutes and thirteen seconds Kaylee shot the ball right through the goalie’s knees. Later, they would replay that clip over and over just to laugh at the shocked expression on his face.

A tie. Four minutes left.

Alex got socked in the face and tapped out, meaning Aisha was back in the game. Alex was swapped out for Victoria at the same time, needing the extra muscle on the defense. All they needed was one more goal.

The Ravens were fighting tooth and nail, and Aisha and Kaylee both knew that if they went into overtime neither of them would be able to pull out a win. They caught each other’s eye across the court, connecting in the moment and knowing what they needed to do. Kaylee whistled, catching Victoria’s attention and getting the ball passed to her.

Forty seconds left.

She bolted, basically leaping with every step she took. Aisha was right next to her, gaining on her and taking a lead.

Thirty two seconds left.

Now, if you were a bored college kid who was practicing a sport that was not basketball inside your school’s danky practice court, what would you spend hours doing? Your captain is off fighting with Coach over plays and you have far too much time on your hands? No guesses? You practice trick shots and see who can get the most balls through the hoops, points for style of course. And if you are five two Aisha Duke, all you want to do is be tall enough to dunk. Sometimes that requires stepping on a few people to get there.

Twenty five seconds left.

Kaylee passed the ball off the wall sliding ahead and giving Aisha a flat surface to step on. They were within ten feet of the goal, and both their backliners were suddenly confused as fuck.

Seventeen seconds left.

Aisha caught the ball and took two steps before stepping on Kaylee’s back, using the momentum her teammate gave to jump into the air and take the shot from an unexpected high angle. The goalie had no idea what was happening, and their hesitation was all that was needed for the goal to light up red.

Five seconds left on the clock and there was nothing the Raven’s could do.

The court wasn’t a safe place to celebrate, not with six pissed off Raven’s glaring them into the waxed flooring. The Gators bolted for the door, but that didn’t stop tears from pouring and laughter sounding off.

They did it. They made it to the playoffs, and knocked the Ravens out. That was the deal, make it to playoffs and the school will keep the team alive, actually fund them. It was all Isabel was working them towards, the biggest goal she had for them all season and they did it.

The final score was 8-7.

In the locker room they all ran into each other’s arms, a mess of laughing and crying and just trying to catch their breath. Coach Johnson watched from the doorway, relief flooding his veins and making a smile grow on his face.

Tessa stepped back, raising her water bottle into the air. “To Isabel Khan, the best damn captain we could have asked for.”

“TO ISABEL!”

“And to Zakiya, who pulled our heads out of our asses when we needed it.”

“ZAKIYA!”

Coach Johnson walked over and put a hand down on Tessa’s shoulder. “Alright ladies, go shower and change, we have a captain to go visit. Docs say she is awake, concussed but alright. I think this news is something she’d like to hear from the lions mouth.”

“What about the press?”

“Yeah, Isabel wouldn’t want us to ignore them. It’s part of the job.”

“I’ll yell at them, you know I’m good at it.”

He looked around at his team, the unbelievable women standing before him. “Then you better hurry up; you all kicked ass so you’ll all probably have some questions to answer. Gagne is on yelling duty, the rest of you better be polite little angels.”

“That’s a high bar Coach, you sure you don’t wanna lower it a little?”

“You sure you still want to be standing here and wasting time?”

“WE’RE GOING!”


	2. The Post Game Interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game is over and Coach Johnson allows a quick interview before he gets his team the hell out of there.

Coach Johnson: Alright, we’re going to be keeping this brief so only a few questions. To start off, Isabel Khan has been checked into the hospital and is getting the best care possible, I will not be disclosing any details for her privacy but we’re confident that she’ll be alright. She will not be back on the court for the rest of the season, but no doubt you’ll be seeing her cheering from the bench. 

Reporter: Anything you want to say to the Raven about injuring the captain of your team?

Johnson: Exy is a violent game and these things happen. The player in question was removed from the court and no doubt will not be playing for the rest of the season, so there’s nothing more to say.

Reporter: What was behind the change during half time? How did you decide to switch up positions like you did?

Naaji: We were down a striker and down four points, we all agreed that we’d need something a little crazy to bounce back. We talked it over and figured out a strategy that we thought would work for us.

Wilson: Isabel Khan has been our rock throughout this season, so seeing her taken off the court like that shook us, but we knew we wanted to win it for her. Naaji stepped up and kicked our butts into gear during half time, it’s really thanks to her we kept going.

Naaji: We did it together, without each other we wouldn’t be here.

Reporter: Hernandez, that was an amazing shot from the half court line at the beginning of the second half; how’d you know you were going to make it?

Hernandez: I didn’t, but no one else was open so I said a prayer and hoped.

Reporter: Cohen, why did you step up to take Khan’s space as a striker? You have been playing as a backliner this whole season.

Cohen: I was very angry and Naaji told me to put it to use.

Naaji: It was a choice we made as a team, and Cohen did an incredible job being put in such an unusual position. We’re all incredibly proud of how well we all did mixing it up like we did.

Reporter: Aisha Duke, you scored four goals this match; that’s very impressive for such a green player against a seasoned team like the Ravens.

Duke: Is there a question or are you just complimenting me? I know, the only other players who have scored more than that are Josten and Day so I think I’m in good company.

Reporter: What do you think led to your success in that aspect?

Duke: Lots of practice and determination. 

Reporter: What do you think Isabel Khan would say if she was here right now?

Wilson: 100% would be crying, she’d be so proud of how far we have come this year.

Reporter: What do you have to say about the maneuver you and Kaylee Hatford performed to score your last goal? How long have you been practicing that?

Hartford: University of Florida doesn’t have an exy court to practice on, so during the week we use the practice basketball gym. While Khan is talking with Coach about strategy Duke and I practice trick shots in the hoops. Thank god it worked, that would have been embarrassing.

Duke: Khan is going to be pissed she missed it though, that was awesome.

Reporter: Are you looking forward to the playoffs?

Naaji: Yes, it’s going to be very exciting to play against the Foxes again and meet the other teams we haven’t played before. But no matter what happens we are incredibly proud of our team and all we have accomplished.

Gagne: Also we’re up for the challenge, so bring it.

Naaji: Max!

Johnson: And on that note we have a captain to see, goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter two will be the post game press conference??? So basically everyone being amazed at my talented children and they're like "we know, we've been telling you thing the whole time??? we know what we're doing"


End file.
